Leap Day Fancy Night
Tonight, being the night of leap day, I thought it might be nice to try to do Fancy Night, which various iterations of my friendgroup have been attempting to organize ourselves for since 2018. Fancy Night is getting dressed up to the nines and then going somewhere banal, like IHOP or Wendy's. Tonight it was McDonald's.
As it was, it was looking like it was only was going to be was Wes, Paige, and me. Was. But Ezra surprised me by getting done up, and then after going out to keep Paige company in the car while Ezra got done up, Georgia put on sneakers and came along. I was glad because she's been not doing well emotionally this past week.
I got to wear my vintage handmade 50s dress finally (I got it half a year ago) and I listened to old music while going all out on my face with both hands ('if the men find out we can shapeshift, they're going to tell the church') and got to channel my Walk-the-Line-obsessed-ponytail brain into a bad southern accent and the poof of my skirt. I even did a passable cat-eye!
We had a nice time talking in the back of the McDonald's, even if we were a little bit loud and I wasn't feeling some of the conversation. We were a little shy when we walked in because people definitely took notice. I took good pictures of my friends. Paige wore a long soft black dress and a pearl necklace with pearl leafy earrings and a magical gold sparkle black shawl. Ezra wore a black and white skirt over warm black leggings and a black and white floral printed wrap-top. Wes wore a blazer with a plaid scarf, striped socks and nice brown oxfords. Georgia wore a cool baseball cap and a sweatshirt and sneakers and her smile which I love most of all.
It was a nice night and I took some pictures of myself that make me stare. It's taken many years for me to feel this confident in myself and to feel this pretty. But I feel like the way I looked tonight is exactly the way I've always wanted to look. There was a lot of pain and embarrassment and shame and risk and uncertainty and pretending to get here.
Tomorrow I'm going to meet Viola in the city for her birthday. We're going to try to go to a bookstore.